Mars Base One's control room, where "colonists" can communicate with "Earth Base"

Jonathan Browning

With its rocky, red landscape and hazy sky that often turns grey after a sandstorm, Mars Base One could easily be mistaken for an authentic outer-space facility. It is, however, solidly planted on planet Earth, in a remote section of the Gobi desert, about 40 kilometres from the nearest city – a Chinese mining town called Jinchang. And it is not home to secretive space research, but to a video series called Space Challenge. Think Big Brother, but Martian.

Producer Bai Fan explains that making the show in a base that tries to replicate the living conditions humans could expect to find on Mars wasn't without challenges. “We worked with scientists and technicians both in China and abroad for two years, to learn every detail – from how to train an astronaut to how food may grow on the base if humans landed on Mars,” he says.

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Although not really needed, the airlock is still used to maintain entry and exit air pressure

Jonathan Browning

The first season has already been filmed, and from June 2019, according to Bai, Mars Base One will open its doors for workshops and visits, to educate young people and ignite their interest in space exploration.

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Life on the base, Bai says, is as realistic as possible. The building is self-sufficient, and includes a medical facility and a bio-module. Inhabitants follow an “astronaut routine”: eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work, eight hours of free time. Mobile phones are banned. Participants wear space suits, eat insects to replace conventional meat, and recycle water.

Potatoes will be a staple crop for base residents

Jonathan Browning

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They even have a Mars rover to explore their surroundings. For Bai, this is a key strength of the project: the environment is so barren that it genuinely simulates a hostile Martian habitat. “The idea is to create an atmosphere where you feel that the environment is failing you and you are losing resources.” A couple of nights at the base, and you will be desperate to see a tree, he adds.

The point of the project is not to push psychological boundaries in the way of isolation experiments such as Mars-500. Rather, it is about educating ordinary children, letting them imagine what it would be like to be an astronaut.

Jonathan Browning

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Mars Base One has the support of the Astronaut Centre of China, and Bai expects the $50 million facility to gain young fans in China and around the world. He envisages further faux-Martian projects in the future: “We would like to develop a space brand through other installations, like Mars concept hotels or canteens." The first space camp is just one small step.